I've worked in the healthcare field, and can say with certainty that dealing with insurance is a pain, and can be very time consuming. It also requires that medical and dental offices employ people who have expertise with various insurance plans, and due to rapid changes in the industry, they have to stay up to date with each one, which often takes away from their other duties. Because of this, some medical and dental offices prefer cash paying clients/patients, and will offer discounts for those paying cash, since it's much simpler to process the payments, and they receive their money quicker. I had oral surgery this week, and ahead of time, I was trying to decide whether I should try to switch insurance plans to see if i could find one that would cover the surgery, but I didn't want to compromise on my current plan, because I have some medical treatments in the future that could be affected. I decided to tell the oral surgery center that I would be paying cash, and although they didn't state that was why they offered me a discount, I saved at least $165 off the bill, because they gave me a $40 discount, and then waived the charges of $50 for an x-ray, because my dentist emailed them the x-ray they had taken, and they also waived a $75 exam fee.
